The present invention relates to a new and improved food serving and storage container, more particularly, the present invention relates to a food serving and storage container which may be utilized to maintain food in a cooled condition.
Although cooling chests for transporting and storing various types of food items had been known, there has been a long felt need for a food server and storage container in which various types of foods such as potato salad, tuna salad and various other foods may be stored directly and served, particularly at picnics, outings and the like. Although a cooling chest may serve to maintain the foods in a cooled state during transport to the picnic or outing, there was a long felt need for a container in which such foods could be stored, maintained cool both during transport and during the serving process. Quite commonly, such foods will be placed out on a picnic or buffet table for hours during an outing event. Such foods, although perfectly wholesome when first placed out for service, may present substantial risk of botulism, salmonella poisoning or other risks as a result of the growth of microorganisms as a result of inadequate cooling, as is well well known This is particularly the case with respect to potato salad, tuna fish salad and other similar types of foods which are particularly susceptible to creating such risks.
The present invention is particularly adapted to the serving and maintaining cool of such foods which do not have their own containers, such as salads and the like.